Jennifer Zdon / The Times-PicayuneFormer Rebirth Brass Band trumpeter Shamarr Allen hits the road with Willie Nelson again in July.

In July local trumpeter Shamarr Allen joins Willie Nelson's band for a tour of minor league baseball stadiums with John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan. For part of the show, Dylan and Nelson are expected to perform together, meaning Allen may also be on stage with Dylan.

The 27-year-old alumnus of the Rebirth Brass Band and jazz drummer Bob French's' band first toured with Nelson in February. Nelson then invited Allen to a recording session with Ray Price and Leon Russell.

So the morning after his May 3 performance at Jazz Fest, Allen drove to Austin, where he laid down horn parts on a half-dozen new songs after hearing them once. Nelson subsequently hired Allen for the upcoming Dylan tour.

The trumpeter's ambition is not to be a sideman forever. His own band, the Underdawgs, recently released a CD called "Box Who In?," a collection of funk, rock and jazz. "But there's some things you can't pass up," he said. "This is good for a lot of reasons. It gives me a level of credibility that would have taken me a long time to get on my own. It helps me cut through red tape with my own band. And the money makes it that much better."

After backing Nelson and Dylan, "anybody else you play with is going backward," Allen said. "Paul Sanchez said that the only thing better is if John Lennon wakes up from the dead." The full impact "still hasn't hit me. It's a long road. But this is a step on that road."

The Dylan/Nelson/Mellencamp tour is not scheduled to stop in Louisiana. The closest show to New Orleans is an Aug. 5 date in Corpus Christi, Texas.